Parting the Red Sea of Loneliness

There's a report out today (http://washingtontimes.com/upi-breaking/20040121-080423-3978r.htm) giving scientific "proof" that a Biblical miracle is "possible".

I have a mixed reaction to this. On one hand it is kind of cool to imagine Moses and the entire nation of Israel, crossing amid a 60 mile an hour wind pushing the water back to reveal the reef over which they crossed.

On the other hand, isn't the definition of a miracle "something that can't be explained through natural phenomenon." I mean, its reassuring on one hand, but I don't know that I want every miracle "explained away". It cheapens the concept of a powerful creator who operates beyond our understanding. The most depressing thought is the idea that man has the ability to understand and "know" all things. (I mean, that "need to know" is what got MAN in trouble in the first place, you know?) There are somethings that are bigger than us. If there weren't...well, how depressing to think that we are the summit of all there is? We can't keep our own lives in any reasonable semblance of order...so, we try to cheapen the miraculous. How sad is it that some in our society feel compeled to cling to the idea that if it isn't scientifically explainable, it isn't worthy of our time and energy? Post-modern Science has become the State Religion...

And, that's where loneliness sets in, when we stop looking for that "something bigger" and begin to wallow in what we really are. Because, frankly, what we really are is pretty depressing, if you get down to it. This post-modern era is incredibly discouraging, unless you can find something bigger to hold on to, because, really, in the end, regardless of what we've bought, who we've slept with, what ever power and influence we've accumulated, and what ever degree of public acclamation we've enjoyed, we're still dead. Our bodies still decompose and revert back to the basic elements that made us who we are. That's one reason why the belief in something that is eternal is so important, and, frankly, is the only way any of this makes sense.

Now, I know there are those to whom the idea of "making sense" of all of this is foreign and even unattractive....we'll leave those fine folks for another entry...